747 x 450 Million = Whole Home Built from Airplane Parts

Piece by piece, a Boeing 747 is being taken apart … and rebuilt as the ultimate recycled home. Nearly 450,000,000 individual plane parts (totaling 400,000 pounds) are participating in this radical transformation process, with wings standing out as the dominant roof form.

The aptly-titled Wing House is being constructed by David Hertz Architects in California, a state home to many retired planes that are frequently sold for their constituent materials, making this a clear (relatively) cheap and green choice for the location.

But how could something so expensive be cost-effective? With remote sites like this one, building everything on the lot can require as much labor as simply transporting largely-prefabricated elements (like pieces of an airplane) and assembling them according to an architectural plan.

The structural steel and light-weight aluminum shell are being reused as one might expect, for load-bearing and enclosing purposes respectively. From above, the finished product does not resemble an airplane exactly, but could be the site of an emergency crash-landing gone badly wrong:

Everything is has been accounted for as well, from the fuselage and first-class cabin to the cockpit itself, incorporated strategically so as to utilize every last bit of the vintage jet from which it is built. Anything not used in the primary residence is employed in the creation of a guest house, barn, viewing platform and art studio spread around the core domicile.